I Never Even Told You
by UGX7
Summary: In the aftermath of the Battle of Beacon, all the students are sent home, all but those who lost their lives. And Jaune Arc must suffer with the loss of his friend, the girl who loved him. A prologue to Destiny of Remnant.


**A Small, very emotion driven one-shot set during the Volume 3 finale.**

 **I Never Even Told You**

'I'm a failure.'

Those three words were the three that haunted Jaune Arc constantly. Others being words and phrases tormented his mind, such as 'Why didn't I do something?' 'Not good enough.' 'Not Fast Enough.' 'Stupid.' 'Childish' 'Lucky' 'Moron' 'Idiot' 'Blind' 'Loser' 'You had someone who loved you for you right in front of you and you didn't even fucking notice.' But the two that really drove him over the edge were 'Pyyrha' and 'She loved me.'

He remembered why Professor Goodwitch and that Qrow guy brought two things down from the ruins of the tower; Ruby, her small form held by Qrow and Pyyrha's headpiece. Glynda Goodwitch, a woman who Jaune knew didn't think very much of him, looked him straight in the eye and said "Mr. Ar... Jaune... I'm so, so sorry." As she handed him the headpiece of the girl he considered to be his best friend.

Jaune looked at her, utterly failing to hold back any tears. Glynda shook her head sadly.

He didn't remember what happened next. He recalled that he fell to the ground sobbing, clutching the headpiece to his chest. Glynda knelt down to him and held his shoulder. "Take care of the kid, I gotta get Ruby to a medic." Qrow said.

That was the last thing he could hear before he blacked out and he woke up to his two of his sisters; his second eldest Shani and the youngest of the seven sisters, but was still eleven months older than him, Azure.

"Oh thank God Jaune!" Shani said as she sat down on the bed and grabbed him and pulled him to her chest. Azure hugged Jaune from the front and said "I'm so sorry little bro."

"Shani? Azure? Where am I?" he asked. "You're in a hospital Jaune. Azure, go get mom, dad, and the rest." Shani ordered. "Why do I have to? You..." "Just do it!" Shani scolded. Azure backed off and ran out of the room to get the rest of Jaune's family.

"Shani... none of that was a dream, was it?" Jaune asked. Shani sadly shook her head. "I'm sorry. I know you must have been close to that Nikos girl and I'm..." "Her name was Pyrrha. And I wasn't close enough. Never enough." Jaune said miserably as the terrible reality set in for him and the tears began flowing once again.

"Oh my god..." his older sister said as she hugged him tighter as she began to realize what he meant by that.

* * *

Jaune was in the hospital for exhaustion of both the physical and emotional variety, but it was apparently the revelation of Pyrrha's death that pushed him over the edge according to the doctor's at Vale's hospitals. His other team mates, Nora and Ren were also there, with no parents or real home of their own Jaune's mother generously allowed them to stay in the guest room of the Arc's house. They had been in the hospital for the various wounds they had received fighting the Grimm and the controlled Atlas Robotic soldiers as well as fatigue and exhaustion from the sheer overwhelming madness of the battle.

Apparently they had naturally been devastated by the loss of Pyrrha as well. Apparently they needed a baker's dozen worth of nurses and guards to stop Nora from breaking out and going on a blood thirsty rampage across the planet to find whoever had murdered Pyrrah and, going by Ren's words, 'break every bone in their body, destroy their genitalia, put a spell that makes them immortal for an hour so she could hang them, beat them with a whip and a lead pipe, then impale them with said pipe, and then sick a flock of baby Nevermores on them, ripping their flesh off bit by bit, stab their eyes out and force them to chew on said orbs, and then finally smash their head open with Magnhild, incinerated them, and then flush the ashes down the nastiest toilet she could find'.

That put Nora in the 'do not mess with' category for sure.

Ren was more subtle with his grief, but it was the first time Jaune had ever seen the green clad warrior cry.

Team RWBY hadn't faired much better in the Battle of Beacon, as they were now calling it. Yang's arm had been cut off, Blake had ran away, Weiss was back in Atlas with her father, and to his knowledge Ruby still hadn't woken up.

Jaune talked to the rest of his sisters; Olivia, Bianca, Violet, Indigo, and Sienna as well as his mother and father.

He remembered that woman that had attacked he, Pyrrha, and Ozpin in the vault, that... bitch Cinder. Her partners too Mercury, Emerald, and the other girl he didn't know, Neo or something like that.

One thing was sure however. One way or another, no matter how hard it was, no matter how far he'd have to travel, no matter how many people would try to stop him he would hunt all four of them down and have his revenge. Slow, painful, and just revenge.

While he was in the hospital he had dreams about getting justice for Pyrrha, for the girl who loved him and he was too damn stupid to notice. One night he dreamed of shoving a rifle though Emerald's torso and then blasting his way through and then stabbing the gun into a wall and leaving her as a macabre decoration and there were a group of people standing their watching, clapping and nodding in approval.

He woke up in the hospital sobbing.

The next day he was discharged, but before he left the room he had one last visitor, one he never expected to come. Cardin Winchester.

He was half tempted to yell at his former bully to get the hell out, but considering the sympathetic looks Cardin had on his face.

"What do you want?" Jaune asked. "I heard about Nikos. I'm... ah shit I'm not good at these... I'm sorry okay, for everything." Cardin said. Jaune stared at the muscular brunette teenage that stood across from him. Cardin shut the door, "This conversation never leaves this room, got that Arc?" he asked. Jaune nodded understandingly.

"I'm not gonna deny it, I was an asshole man, a real freaking piece of shit." Cardin said. "You were, yeah. So what?" Jaune asked, deadpanned. "Listen, I'm sorry about everything. I'm sorry I blackmailed you, I'm sorry Pyrrha is dead. It's because of you Jaune that I look back at myself seven months ago and I can say that who I used to be was a real douchebag. I don't want to be like that anymore, and I have you to thank for it man." Cardin said.

Jaune was too stunned to say anything, but Cardin continued. "If I had the chance I would've taken her place. She didn't deserve to die man, I did." Cardin said as he sat down on a wooden chair for visitors.

"Don't say that. No one deserves to die. Well, except for the people responsible for this." Jaune said, clenching his fist.

Cardin nodded in agreement. "I'm just sorry man. Just... truce okay? I'm not picking on you anymore." Cardin said as got up to leave. "Oh and Arc, if it's any consolation, if you ever need help in taking down the bitches and bastards responsible for this, call me." And with that Winchester was gone.

Jaune smiled a small, bittersweet smile.

* * *

The funeral was held at Pyrrha's home country of Mistral. Jaune, Nora, and Ren had traveled with Jaune's sisters to Mistral to attend the funeral. General Ironwood was also there, as was Glynda, and Professors Port and Oobleck, Sun and the rest of his team were also in attendance, Team CFVY and their families along with Ruby and her Uncle Qrow. Since there was no body to burry or burn there was a simple sermon where Pyrrah's friends and family mourned her and said their piece about the girl they admired.

Pyrrha's mother, Hera, spoke of her little girl was born, and how quickly she grew up. How powerful and talented she became. Jaune didn't really listen, he was too busy looking at the pictures of Pyrrha on a table, just now he was realizing how incredibly beautiful she was. He never fully appreciated her until she was taken away.

Nora, Ren, Glynda, and Ruby all said their own speeches, he didn't really pay attention to any of them, but eventually he had to say his own speech about Pyrrha, the girl who loved him.

"I only knew Pyrrha for a little under year, but I knew from the moment we became partners in the forest that we were going to be friends. I don't know why Ozpin chose me to be the leader, maybe he just put us in what ever order made a cohesive word, but I always wondered why me to lead this team and not her. The one actually qualified to lead us. I still don't have the answer to that and I probably never will, but all I can say is... he stopped choking back his tears. "All I can say is that I didn't realize how we really felt about each other until it was too late and that she was the greatest friend I ever had." Was all he said before he walked back to his chair.

Before the group of seven sisters, one brother, and two guests left for home Pyrrha's mother stopped Jaune. "Young man, what you said about my daughter up there, it reminded me of something." She said as she took out a scroll that Jaune recognized as Pyrrah's.

"Pyrrha left this in her room; a man on the cleanup staff at Beacon was kind enough to deliver it to us. I found a video on it you should see." Hera said as she brought up the video. "Mrs. Nikos I..." "Take it." Hera said as she placed the scroll in Jaune's hands. "Keep it safe, and keep it with you always Jaune Arc. My daughter would have wanted it that way." She said, holding back her tears. Jaune hugged the older woman, and she hugged him back in return.

The ship they were taking back to Vale, just so happened to be taking Ruby and her uncle back as well. Ruby told Jaune that Sun had tried and failed to find Blake, and the poor Monkey Faunas was going out of his mind with worry, but at the same time was sure that Blake could take care of herself. Ruby remarked that Sun took it better than Yang did, who had descended into a horrible depression over the loss of her arm and Blake leaving them.

The entire ride home Jaune did not look at the scroll. If he was going to break down crying again he would do it in the privacy of his room. He fell asleep and he had another dream.

He dreamed of ripping Mercury's legs, which were metal for some reason, off and he'd tear jagged pieces of the steel off and shoving them down that grey-haired bastard's throat, scrapping the throat open as they went down and drowning the murderer in his own blood. The group of people was there again, still applauding and even cheering for him, but they now appeared to have Grimm-esque attributes to their features. Before Jaune woke up from that he could swear he heard Pyrrah's voice calling to him but he couldn't understand what she was saying. These dreams were becoming rather unnerving.

* * *

When they arrived back at Vale, said their goodbyes to Ruby and her uncle but before they parted way Ruby whispered something to Jaune, a plan to get justice for what Cinder and her lackeys did to their friends. When Jaune asked her what she meant by that she simply said "Call me if your interested."

After that they returned home, Nora and Ren retiring to the guest room, and his sisters going to either their respective rooms or to watch TV, but Jaune knew what he had to do.

He went into his room and sat the scroll on a desk and he sat on his bed. He just stared at it. He stared at it for hours, not sure of what to do. He knew he had to watch the video Mrs. Nikos told him about eventually but he didn't know if he could.

Night soon fell and he continued to stare at the scroll across from him. His silence was interrupted by his eldest sister Bianca. She had long blonde hair with blue eyes, the ARC family trait, and wore a plain white blouse and white pants.

"Jaune, time for dinner! You hit it rich with that Ren kid! I don't think mom will want to give him up! If she could she'd adopt him and Nora." She joked, but she stopped when she saw the sorry state Jaune was in.

"Oh boy kiddo... still haven't watched it?" she asked. He shook his head.

"You really loved that girl didn't you?" she asked. He sighed and said "She loved me. I didn't realize I loved her too until it was too damn late." He said, slamming his fist onto a pillow in anger at himself.

Bianca sighed and said "Jaune, I need to show you something." "What is it?" he asked. She grabbed him by his hand and pulled him up and dragged him out of his room and towards her own.

Her room was a little dusty, since she had her own apartment now, but she still left some of her old personal belongings here. She led him to a large walk-in closet in the back of her room and opened the doors to reveal something covered in a tarp.

"Bianca, what is it?" Jaune asked. "It's my painting, well it's our painting technically." She said. "Ours?" Jaune questioned. "Mine and Tobias'." She answered. "Tobia... oh! Toby!" he said, remembering now Bianca's dead fiancé Tobias. Jaune had been a mere seven years old when Bianca was eighteen and had been engaged to a wonderful man named Tobias, or Toby as a young Jaune had called him.

"I don't really remember him all that much." Jaune admitted to his sister. "You were too young. He was a wonderful man, always wanted to be a huntsman, but couldn't because of a damned medical condition. It was back when I was a young girl trying to be an artist. I was at the park one afternoon, I went to the top of a big hill trying to paint a perfect sunset, but a sudden rush of wind knocked me over, but I was saved by Tobias who was cloud gazing on the same hill. Things hit off, we dated for a few months, and after a while... engagement. I wanted to make this." Bianca said as she ripped off the tarp and revealed a nearly finished, wonderful painting of a park that Jaune recognized as one he and his sisters had played in hundreds of times in their youth.

"I wanted to make a painting of the place we met. He never knew what I was making, I always told him 'I'll tell you tomorrow, you'll find out tomorrow' but then it happened." Bianca said sadly. "The car crash." Jaune said, remembering the accident that took his would be brother-in-law from this world.

Bianca nodded somberly. "After that I locked the painting up in my closet, mom and dad were the only ones besides me to know about it." She said. "That had to have been hard knowing who we live with." Jaune snarked. Bianca smiled and shook her head, "Like you wouldn't believe." She confirmed before she frowned again.

"After Tobias died I not only locked the painting I had worked so hard on away, I locked tomorrow away because I realized that the tomorrow Tobias had waited for was never going to come." She said sadly, putting her hand on the painting.

"You locked tomorrow away but I don't think Toby would have wanted that and now that I think of it, Pyrrha wouldn't want me to do it either just because I lost her." He said. Bianca smiled at her little brother.

"Your right little bro." she said proudly. "JAUNE! BIANCA! GET DOWN HERE NOW SO WE CAN EAT!" yelled Nora from down stairs. Bianca and Jaune laughed as they ran to get down to the dining room, not wanting to invoke the wrath of Nora Valkyrie.

* * *

That night Jaune had another dream but this dream truly scared him. In his dream he was fighting Cinder Fall, the woman he wanted to see die more than anything else; He dreamed he was utterly kicking her ass in a fight, hitting, kicking, stabbing, slashing, and shooting her apart. He saw that she could no longer fight him; she collapsed in a shuddering, bleeding pile. He walked towards her slowly, ignoring her pleas to leave her alone. He picked her up, bridal style, and it was then that Jaune realized that they were on top of the ruined tower where this bitch had murdered Pyrrah. He heard her weakly beg him to spare her but all he could hear himself say in response was "Hush little baby don't say a word, daddy's gonna buy you a big black bird!" and with that he tossed her over the side of the tall tower, listening in sadistic glee to her screams as she fell and landed with a sickening thud. He looked over and his mind was filled with both horror and satisfaction. Cinder Fall's head had been impaled on a spiked tower, a spike coming out of her mouth and blood pouring out of the back of her head like a waterfall. Young Nevermores were picking her body apart, tearing off bits of flesh and ripping out her organs. He could see her eyes, wide with horror and pain as she slowly, painfully died. He looked up and saw the Grimm Dragon nodding in approval, he looked around the tower and saw Grimm of all species roaring and snarling at him, but not in a hostile manner, in a manner of respect. They were the people who applauded him; they were the primal evil of the Grimm, attracted to him by his anger and hate. He turned around and saw Pyrrha looking at him sadly. "Jaune, don't." was all she said.

He woke up with a start, sweat covering his body. He wiped his forehead off as he turned on the light. He looked at the scroll and he took a deep breath. He needed to watch that video.

Jaune turned the scroll on and found the video Hera Nikos had directed him towards. He selected the video and pushed play.

He saw Pyrrha, sitting in their old dorm room. "Hello Jaune. If you're watching this, then something bad must have happened." The redheaded beauty said in her recording. "Pyrrha..." Jaune whispered aloud.

"Jaune if I haven't told you already then I should tell you know. Professor Ozpin has selected me to become a 'fall maiden', I don't fully understand it but apparently if I say yes I will be granted enormous power. The thing is I don't want more power. I feel that I'm powerful enough and I'm an idol to thousands, even though I never really wanted to be one. I feel like taking this power would make me some kind of religious figure and I'm... I'm afraid of what would happen. I'd gain followers, zealots, but I'd lose you and Ren and Nora and Team RWBY and all the friends I've made since I began attending Beacon. Truth be told Jaune, you were the person in a long time to see me for me, and not Pyrrha Nikos the champion, Pyrrha Nikos the prodigy, or something like that. You just saw another girl. It was after what we went through in the Emerald Forest, what happened with Winchester that I realized... I love you Jaune." She said.

Jaune covered his mouth to hold back a sob. "I love you Jaune and I hope you return the feeling. I mean not a lot of people will do what you did at the dance." She said, chuckling a bit. Jaune blushed at the memory of himself in that dress and he realized that it was there at that dance that he began to have romantic feelings for her.

"Jaune, I don't know what the future holds, if I'll take the maiden's powers or not, but I know that no matter what, nothing will change two facts about us. One; you are stronger, smarter, and braver than you know or believe, and two is that I love you." Said Pyrrha Nikos.

And with that the video ended.

"I never even told you how I really felt Pyrrha. I love you too." He said as went back to bed and cried himself to sleep. All those words, all those berating, insulting phrases that swarmed around in Jaune's head were now replaced by three words that he no longer saw in a negative light; 'She loved me.'

Then and there he made a small, but powerful promise that he'd never fall in love with anyone else but Pyrrha Nikos.

* * *

The next morning Jaune watched as Bianca left for her apartment, but she had something in the trunk of her car. The unfinished painting. Bianca looked to him before she left and said "I think it's about time I finished that painting for all of us; Me, Tobias, you, and Pyrrha."

That afternoon Jaune brought Nora and Ren into his room and used Pyrrha's scroll, 'Our scroll' as Jaune would now call it and called Ruby. They would take her up on her offer.

 **Well done Rooster Teeth. This is the first time I felt so damn depressed about something that I had to write I freaking fanfic about.**

 **Anyways read and review and RIP Pyrrha.**

 **EDIT: I'm making a sequel to this. It's going to be a big, sprawling, epic fic called RWBY: Destiny of Remnant. Expect the first chapter in a week or so.**


End file.
